But at least it's not from Asylum, the cheap rip off film production company known for mockbusters, even though this is obviously a rip off made for a cheap cable TV channel which specializes in quickly made action films with poorly conceived monsters. Here, it's a see through beast (which made it cheap to create) that spits out some underwater type acid that makes it easier to capture its prey. So what we do have here is some pretty scenery, a few well done action scenes and some tension as the creature approaches. There's a lot of carnage so for those who want that sort of silliness, they'll have a field day. This is a sea side village with residents so dumb that it deserved to be made a ghost town with the extremely moronic sheriff the most deserving of becoming a midnight snack.

But what made me overuse the remote were annoying cliched characters, too many young women with ear cringing vocal fry and a boring domestic subplot that has been overused and abused too many times. The cast is instantly forgettable, going through the motions of trying to make you care about them. The creature, when seen without the use of the poor practically invisible effects, looks like a giant toad with a huge tongue and lots of teeth. You can get the same type of beautiful scenery on YouTube channels that utilize beautiful music as they take you to the most exotic places around the world. A few giggles as the creature attacks had me amused, but for the most part, the film is a complete waste of time. A shot of a dumb young man trying to get online likes by taking a closeup picture of one of the baby beasts gave me a nice laugh, yelling out "Take that you twit wit!" as he became nearly a human toothpick. By the time I said enough is enough, I realized that it was barely a step above the Asylum films, and I didn't want to commit myself further.

SEA BEAST is a rip-roaring little B-movie that shamelessly rips off the likes of PREDATOR in its tale of a marauding sea monster that comes up on land to stalk and eat hapless human prey, utilising its ability to make its invisible in the meantime. Hell, at one point the hero even says "It bleeds..." and you can almost see the scriptwriters winking at the viewers.

Like most B-movies, this film has its problems. The direction is slightly meandering, but at least the director avoids that annoying and pointless shaky-cam so beloved of B-flick helmers in recent years. The script is hardly polished; we're subjected to padded lines like "If we lose our heads, we're dead" and "I saw it...with my own eyes" and the no-name cast hardly give remarkable performances.

And yet, and yet, SEA BEAST is a lot of fun, it's hard to deny. The pacing is spot on, with the viewer thrown straight into the monster action - none of that slow build up nonsense here, just mayhem and death. The CGI effects are pretty poor, yes, but you feel the animators have at least tried to do what they can with the technology available.

And it's GORY, damn it! Entrails are strewn asunder and heads torn loose, all captured with loving relish. It's hard to dislike this stuff. At one point, the chief critter gives birth to lots of little critters, like in a scene from Emmerich's ill-advised GODZILLA, but SEA BEAST definitely has the edge on that movie, as unlike GODZILLA it's a real hoot!

I don't mind low-budget movies, some of them are bottom-of-the-barrel quality but some are entertaining. Troglodyte is sort of watchable and entertaining, but it does have a lot wrong with it. I give it credit for a great idea, quite nice locations, a decent soundtrack and a good performance from Corin Nemic. However, Miriam McDonald is absolutely awful, consisting of forced line delivery and more annoying than anything else. She's not the only asset that doesn't work. The stereotypical characters also don't work, and neither do the choppy editing, abysmally rendered CGI effects, a meandering, cheesy and predictable script and a story that gets stupider and stupider from one scene to the next. Overall, not bad but far from good. 4/10 Bethany Cox